


Blast

by Original_Cypher



Category: Castle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-10
Updated: 2011-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-24 11:39:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Original_Cypher/pseuds/Original_Cypher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You'd think as Detectives, they'd get hurt on the job...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blast

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [anon ficathon](http://ryanandesposito.livejournal.com/39409.html) at [ryanandesposito](http://ryanandesposito.livejournal.com/).

Esposito wiped the sweat off his face and worked the kinks out of his neck. He was satisfied with the ache in his muscles for the day and exited the precinct’s training room. He tossed his tank into his locker and grabbed a lemon scented shower gel. Kevin would have his ass if he found out he stole it again.

Then again, he didn't really mind when Kevin 'had his ass'. He smirked to himself on the way to the showers, in a hurry to get back to his day off.

\----

Beckett pondered calling Castle if only to have company during paperwork. She shouldn't have had called it an early night yesterday and followed him to a poker game. She should have him come here on principle alone, because this was all his fault.

Kate Beckett was about to press speed dial 1 (don't even think about telling Castle which number he is) when Officer Ramirez barreled inside the room, making a beeline for her.

\----

_Javier refused to acknowledge the foot nudging his through the covers. “T's'our day off.” he muttered in the pillow._

_“Come on, Javi. You know if you sleep in too late you'll be a wreck tomorrow morning when we go back to work.” Kevin coaxed, running a hand up the form of Javier's calf._

_“I'm sleepy. Logic won't work with me.” He argued quietly, not denying that Kevin was right._

_“Please? Early bird catches the worm?” he prompted._

_Javier flopped to his side, pushing the bed spread out of his view of Kevin and gave him a look. “Worm. That's your incentive?”_

_A smile that threatened to spill into a chuckle flickered on Kevin's lips. “...I'll blow you while you cook?” he tried again, looking exaggeratedly cheerful._

_Javier blinked, considered smiling. “Is that another worm metaphor?”_

_“Dude!” Kevin shoved at his thigh. “Yuck. Now I'm not.”_

_Swiftly, Esposito tackled him back to the bed and hoovered over him. “Maybe if you help me wake up properly.” he mused._

_Kevin grinned and pulled him down into a kiss._

\----

Esposito smiled, thinking back to his morning. They'd ended up cooking together, barely clothed, after a lazy make out session. They'd eaten watching the latest Tivoed episode of The Vampire Diaries. Which Javier would swear up and down he only watched for Kevin's sake, but he did find this Damon guy kind of cool. And the story sort of sucked you in. Which, since it was about vampires, he guessed made sense.

He walked out of the shower and found Beckett waiting for him next to his locker. “Hey, Kate. You're too late to watch me work out.” he joked, but his step faltered when she didn't smile. “What happened?”

“It's Ryan.” She said. “He was out on York, there was a... there were shots fired. He wasn't involved but...”

Ice raced through his veins, scratching everything from inside. “Beckett, what?!”

“He got shot. Kevin got shot.”

They stared at each other. They both couldn't accept that fact. Couldn't understand a world where this happened.

Javier sucked in a shaky breath. He had just one question. “Did... did we get the call?” _We_. Homicide.

Kate's hand shook around the post-it she was holding. “No. I was just told. He's in surgery. They couldn't tell me how bad-...”

Javier grabbed his pants and shirt from the locker and stalked to the door. “We're going. Now.”

\----

It was hours later when they got the news.

Kevin was out of surgery. He had survived it, but was far from out of the woods yet. In ICU, and still unconscious. He wouldn't wake up and the docs specifically told them not to get their hopes up just yet.

He had taken one in the chest, one in the abdomen. Paradoxically, the abdominal wound caused the major problem, the long shot to the chest had glanced off a rib and broken it, preventing life threatening damage to vital organs. He had crashed two times on the table and they had had trouble stopping the internal bleeding from the bullet that had done the tango with his small intestine. He was judged unstable as they were watching for it to start again any moment.

They wouldn't let Javier in. Even with Kevin's mom insisting.

“Sorry, it's policy. I can't look the other way for one person and not the other, you understand?” The male nurse said, contrite.

“But he's like family. He's everything to my son.” Molly insisted. “They've been together four years now.”

He had an apologetic smile for the detective. “You could have gone in if you'd been married or engaged.”

Javier covered his mouth and tried not to cry. He understood the policy, but it now appeared to him in all its absurdity. He was facing the possibility that Kevin was going to die.

He was going to die, right there, feet away, and Javier couldn’t see him, touch him, until he was dead.

\----

“You should go rest.” Castle said softly as he handed Javier a cup of horrid hospital joe.

Hours had past. Maybe days? Javier was distantly aware that he was hungry. Or had been. He was tired, but too wired to even unclench his jaw. “I couldn't.”

“Get out of here. Breathe some non chlorinated air.” Castle tried again softly.

“I can't. I can't, if he-...” his throat closed on the words, not knowing which possibility he wanted to consider first. “If he anything... I can't leave.”

Castle nodded. “They told me you couldn't go in because you're not family. Not as long as he's not stable.”

Javier frowned, nodded. “I was going to, man. I swear I was...” He met Castle's eyes, knowing the author was listening, even though he wasn't caught up yet. “I just didn't know how he'd take it, y'know? I mean, I know he'd say yes. I'm pretty sure of it, but if I asked...”

Castle's features relaxed as he connected the dots. “If you asked then it made him the girl.”

“Yeah.” Javier breathes out on a water chuckle. “I don't know if he wouldn't have kicked my ass on principle for that.” he mused, then tried to imagine Kevin in his bed, all wrapped up in bandages.

“You know...” Castle said softly, bringing him back. “You'll get to test that theory. You'll get him back home, play nurse for him and you'll get to ask your question.”

Javier listened, nodded along, tried to believe him. All he could do now was believe as hard as he could. He believed in Kevin. Kevin could make it through.

“Tell you what.” Castle said again, watching Beckett come back from checking in with the precinct outside. “If anything happens. The very second anything happens, you'll know, okay?” Javier looked up. “If you don't listen to me and get some air now, Kate's gonna make you. And I don't think we want that.” he said and tried for a smile.

Javier suddenly realized that he was sitting next to Castle. As in Kevin's friend. Castle loved Kevin. Those two had a sort of private geeky bond that Javier had never been privy to, and Castle was here, waiting on news just like Esposito.

Refusing to feel awkward about something this trivial, he pulled the author in a weirdly angled, sitting hug. “Okay.” he whispered.

\-----

The clock on the microwave glared at Javier when he stepped in the apartment. Somehow it suddenly felt like he had never set foot inside. It was empty, ghostly. It wasn't his if Kevin wasn't here. It was theirs. Had always been.

\----

_“Should I carry you over the threshold?” Javier teased._

_“Shut up. Come check it out. I'm sure you'll love it.”_

_“I love you.” he pointed out, trying to convey the idea that he would like whatever Kevin would, as long as they could fit a couch and a kind sized bed in it._

_“Love you more.”_

_Javier tugged Kevin until his lover stepped on the tip of his boots and walked him backwards inside, mouthing under his jaw. “I'll need to test it.” he purred in Kevin's neck._

_Kevin laughed, slid down his feet and let his hands wander down to cup Javier through his jeans. “Okay, babe. But two things first.” Javier groaned. “You tell me if you like the kitchen island, and you let me close the front door.”_

\----

Javier flopped down on the couch and thought about that morning, how they sprawled here watching teenage looking vampires angst and now... He spotted the note on the table and picked it up.

He was finally crying by the time he was finished reading it. Hot, thick tears of misery flowing down his face, he sobbed until he couldn't breathe.

He was still crying, curled up on Kevin's side of the couch when he got the call.

\----

_'Ran out for a bit. Sister called, boyfriend issues. I'll grab something from the bakery you like on York on the way back. Call if you beat me home. Love you more. K'_


End file.
